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A Portuguese Perspective of the Solutrean

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A Portuguese Perspective of the Solutrean A NDREA S P A S TOOR S & B ÄR B EL A UFFERMANN ( ED S . ) : P LEI S TOCENE FORAGER S ON THE I B ERIAN P ENIN S ULA : T HEIR CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT . J OÃO Z ILHÃO -F ESS OLUTREANT S CHRIFT IN INHONOUR P ORTUGAL OF G ERD - C HRI S TIAN W ENIGER FOR HI S S IXTIETH B IRTHDAY . 201 W I ss EN S CHAFTLICHE S CHRIFTEN DE S N EANDERTHAL M U S EUM S 7 , M ETTMANN 2 0 1 3 . SEEING THE LEAVES AND NOT MISSING THE FOREST: A PORTUGUESE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SOLUTREAN João Zilhão Abstract In a 1964 synthesis, Roche concluded that the Upper Palaeolithic of Portugal remained largely unknown, the presence of the Solutrean being the only fact that could be unambiguously ascer- tained. Subsequent work has radically changed this situation and, where the Solutrean is con- cerned, has established that its culture-stratigraphy sequence accords well with the traditional subdivision systematised for France by Smith, which was based on the successive appearance of different index fossils. Where lithic point typology suggests a break, this is confirmed indepen- dently by accompanying changes in the basic technology of blade production. In some cases, the existence of a given unit of the subdivision can only be inferred from the identification of the cor- responding index fossils in palimpsest contexts. The identification of such contexts as being mixed post-depositionally, and not as documenting a true coexistence of point types, which would falsify the overall sequence, is made easy by the fact that, in Portugal, most Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) sites are open air and feature few (if not single) occupation levels. This fact has advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, the fairly complete reduction sequences enable the reconstruction of total lithic production systems, and the enveloping geology well illustrates the impact of the period’s environmental instability. On the other hand, issues of change through time have to be addressed largely through stratigraphic correlation and radiocarbon dating, and are often compli- cated by the representativity problems raised by special-purpose, logistical sites. These issues are of broader archaeological interest, as are the implications of the Solutrean’s chronostratigraphic sequence for the palaeoanthropological interpretation of patterns of technological change. Where the LGM of south-western Europe is concerned, such implications are, namely, that the distribu- tion and abundance of sites is conditioned by taphonomy more than by demography, and that considerations of social geography are of greater explanatory power to understand the emergence and development of the Solutrean than more traditional origins questions. Keywords Upper Palaeolithic, Solutrean, Portugal, Last Glacial Maximum INTRODUCTION Writing at about the same time as Smith approached the conclusion of his monu- mental study of the Solutrean in France (Smith 1966), Roche (1964) stated that nothing much could be said about the Upper Palaeolithic occupation of Portugal beyond ascer- taining human presence during the Solutrean. Almost fifty years later, the situation is dramatically different. However, since the characteristic index fossils of the Solutrean (Fig. 1) make it easy to recognise its manifestations even when the sites are no more than surface scatters or stray finds devoid of stratigraphic context, this techno-com- plex remains the better-known period of the Portuguese Upper Palaeolithic. In terms of the number of occurrences, however, the Gravettian comes close, if it has not over- taken it already (Zilhão 1997, 2001, 2002). Most sites of the Gravettian and the Solutrean of Portugal date to a relatively short period of time, immediately before and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This circumstance is largely a by-product of geological constraints controlling the formation and preservation of late Upper Pleistocene deposits (Angelucci 2002; Zilhão & Almeida 2002; Angelucci et al. 2005). As a result, investigations carried out during the last quarter of the 20th century in the littoral central part of the country (Portuguese Estremadura) revealed a record of the Gravettian-to-Solutrean transition featuring a level of resolution and detail that remains unparalleled in southwest Europe (Zilhão & Aubry 1995; Zilhão et al. 1997, 1999; Almeida 2000; Zilhão & Almeida 2002). The terms of this transition are: 202 P LEI S TOCENE F ORAGER S ON THE I B ERIAN P ENIN S ULA 1. An initial Late Gravettian (equivalent to the Perigordian VII or the Protomagdalenian of the Périgord), where carinated scrapers-cores make an initial, timid reappearance, and marginally backed bladelets made on blanks extracted from such cores are found alongside the backed-and-truncated bladelets and microgravettes that dominate the microlithic component of the tool-kit. 2. An intermediate Terminal Gravettian, where the technology of blade production follows preceding traditions (primarily unipolar reduction of prismatic cores with platforms pre- pared by abrasion, producing slender, lipped products), but where the robust backed bladelet and microgravette components are replaced by smaller, thinner, marginally retouched bladelets made on blanks extracted from carinated or nosed scrapers-cores. This latter component is not a full-fledged, independent technological system defining an epigonical Aurignacian V, which is an artificial construct created by Bordes (1958, 1959) on the basis of material from Laugerie-Haute Est selected post-excavation among the lithic collections from a number of different stratigraphic units. 3. A final Protosolutrean, where the arming of any bone/wood projectile points that may have continued to be part of the hunting weaponry was effected with unretouched bladelets or small flakes, and where projectile tips were now predominantly, if not entirely, made of stone and obtained via minimal modification of large, hard hammer- extracted, triangular blanks with dorsally thinned butts — the Vale Comprido points (Fig. 1,10). The initial Late Gravettian is well-re- presented at Terra do Manuel (layer 2s), and the intermediate Terminal Gravet- tian at Lapa do Anecrial (layer 2) and the Lagar Velho rock shelter (Hanging Rem- nant layer 9). It is the final Proto solutrean stage, now well-documented in France too (Renard & Teyssandier 2007), which provides the base line for all subse- quent technological developments of the Solutrean. In the following, I will describe (after Zilhão 1997) the trajec- tory of such developments as currently known in Portugal. I will then discuss in what ways this trajectory does (or does not) set Portugal apart from the patterns documented elsewhere in the Solutrean world. Finally, in the light of my findings, I will conclude with a discussion of dif- ferent explanations for the Solutrean phenomenon in terms of technology, culture and adaptation. Throughout, calibration of radiocarbon dates uses CalPal Online (www.calpal-online.de). The actual results cited in the text, and associated sample details, are given in table 1. CULTURE-STRATIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE Fig. 1 Index fossils of the Portuguese Solutrean (all scale bars = 1 cm): 1. microlithic foliate point; 2. Cantabrian-type shouldered point; 3. barbed-and- LOWER SOLUTREAN tanged (Parpalló) point; 4. Mediterranean-type, The stratigraphic and chronometric backed-and-shouldered point; 5. small laurel-leaf; 6. willow-leaf; 7. pointe à face plane; 8. laurel-leaf with evidence from the Abrigo do Lagar convex base; 9. laurel-leaf with denticulated edges; Velho — where multiple, concordant 10. Vale Comprido point. 1,5-8: Vale Almoinha; 2-3: dates place the Terminal Gravettian in Gruta do Caldeirão; 4,9: Galeria da Cisterna (Almonda); 10. Terra do Manuel (1940-42). the ~21.5-21 14C (~25.5-25 cal) ka BP J OÃO Z ILHÃO - S OLUTREAN IN P ORTUGAL 203 interval — constrains the lower chronological limit of the Protosolutrean as defined above. At this and other Portuguese sites, the Middle Solutrean, as defined below, is no earlier than ~20.5 14C (~24.5 cal) ka BP. No sites are known where well-defined, individualised stratigraphic units dated to within the intervening five to ten centuries exist; moreover, in long stratigraphic sequences, this interval either coincides with a discontinuity (e.g., at Lagar Velho, the erosional scar between layers 9 and 6 of the Hanging Remnant) or is conceivably represented but subsumed in a palimpsest deposit (e.g., at Caldeirão, layer I) (Figs. 2-3). The type-site for the Vale Comprido point (Vale Comprido – Encosta, Rio Maior) yielded a few examples where such points combined the characteristic dorsal thin- ning of the butt with some degree of unifacial, flat retouch along the edges (e.g., Zil- hão 1997, vol. II, Fig. 23.13,14). A find complex presumably representing a nearby locus (Vale Comprido – A), in turn, yielded typical pointes à face plane, some with ventral thinning of the proximal end (e.g., Zilhão 1997, vol. II, Fig. 23.7,2-3). Combined with the fact that there are no reliable dates in excess of ~20.5 ka 14C age BP for assemblages containing laurel-leaves, neither in Portugal nor in adjacent regions, this evidence sug- gests that (a) the Protosolutrean dates to ~21 ka 14C age BP, and (b) the ~21-20.5 ka 14C BP black hole of the Portuguese sequence corresponds to a Lower Solutrean phase as typologically defined by Smith (1966) - featuring pointes à face plane with dorsal, invasive flat retouch (e.g., Fig. 1,7) but lacking in bifacial foliate points. From a technological point of view, the emergence of the Lower Solutrean from a Protosolutrean background is easy to envisage: The pointe à face plane would come about as a by-product of the search for a better control of the final shape of points made on Vale Comprido blanks, or of the need to resharpen broken ones. There are examples at Vale Comprido that suggest experimentation with abrupt retouch as a means to achieve this end (e.g., Zilhão 1997, vol.
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